“Don’t beat yourself up over this, Mitch. It’s not your fault. Dammit, Blue was old. That’s what old people do. They die. ” – Beanie

Number of Times Seen – Twice (30 Jun 2003, 27 Jan 2008 and 14 Nov 2018)

Brief Synopsis – Three middle aged men start a fraternity in order to relive their college days.

My Take on it – When Darren told me that he chose this genre for November, I was quite excited and debated for quite a long time what movies I would review for this challenge.

My first pick was this film which I have now seen 3 times and it gets even better upon multiple watches.

They do a great job showing the way that middle age life can sometimes gets people down and they therefore want to revert back to living the carefree days that they spent back in college.

The cast of this film is perfect and they help set a great tone for it all.

Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn are both great in their respective roles and they would later be typecast in similar kinds of roles for years afterwards.

The best piece of casting tho in this film is that of Will Ferrell as Frank and it seems as if he was born to play such a great role that seems like an extension of roles he played while he was part of SNL for so many years.

He commandeers EVERY scene he is in and none of the other actors come close to outshining him at all.

The style of humor in this film is very similar to Animal House (1978) and in some ways feels like a modernized version of that classic college fraternity film.

The story just gets funnier and funnier as things move along and works on so many levels.

Bottom Line – Really fun film that shows how men wanting to relive their days of partying in college are faced with the conflicts of a ‘grown up life’. The cast is hilarious with Wilson and Vaughn giving great performances, but Ferrel was born for this kind of role and steals every scene he is in. The humor is perfect for an Animal House (1978) style film set in the 21st Century and it just gets funnier and funnier as the story moves along. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Frank’s streaking scene was shot on a city street. As Will Ferrell remembered it, one of the storefronts was a twenty-four-hour gym with Stairmasters and treadmills in the window. “I was rehearsing in a robe, and all these people are in the gym, watching me. I asked one of the Production Assistants, ‘Shouldn’t we tell them I’m going to be naked?’ Sure enough, I dropped my robe and there were shrieks of pure horror. After the first take, nobody was at the window anymore. I took that as a sign of approval.” (From IMDB)